THIRD DOWN, TWO TO GO, PART II: IDJ TOPS
His Island Def Jam, thanks to new releases from Ne-Yo and 2005 holdovers Fall Out Boy, Kanye West and Nickelback, finds itself atop the four-month new release list with 6.5%, up from last year’s 5.6%. For a full marketshare chart, see here.
IDJ is followed in the new-release list by Atlantic Records, at 5.5%, up almost 2% points from same time last year, thanks to the U.K.’s James Blunt, who has the #4 album of 2006 so far, with 1.2 million in sales, and rapper T.I., #6 with 1 million.
Next is Warner Bros. (5.5%) which, thanks to label ruler Tom Whalley, has mostly withstood the chaos at the top of the organization to produce some solid numbers, thanks to chart mainstays like Madonna, Enya, Michael Buble, E-40 and Taking Back Sunday. This week’s Red Hot Chili Peppers debut at #1 should push that figure even higher.
Last year’s new release leader, Jimmy Iovine’s Interscope/A&M/ DreamWorks, came in at 5.5%, down almost 50% from last year’s 10.5%, when it ruled with a huge Q1 release from 50 Cent. This year, the label scored with Eminem, #8, totaling 950k in sales.
The rest of the new release leaders includes RCA Music Group (5.4% vs. 4.7%), which rode the coattails of master hitmaker Clive Davis to success, with three albums in the new year’s Top 10, including Arista’s Carrie Underwood (#5, 1 million), J’s Jamie Foxx (#7, 950k) and Arista’s Barry Manilow (#10, 850k).
Disney scored with 5.3%, up a chart-leading 2.3% from the year before, thanks to 2006’s top-selling 1-2 punch in High School Musical (1.8m) and Rascal Flatts (1.4m), helped by steady leadership from Bob Cavallo.
Rounding out the leading labels are Universal Motown (5.0%), Columbia Records (5.0%), Geffen Records (3.1%, thanks to #3 artist Mary J. Blige), Epic Records (3.1%) and Jive (2.5%, which last week’s #1 debut by Volcano’s Tool will undoubtedly bolster).
